LETTER OF SUBMITTAL 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, 



Division of Agrostology, 

 Washington, J>. C, January 22, 1897. 



Sir: I submit herewith a number of illustrations of 

 native and introduced grasses, with brief descriptions 

 and notes upon the distribution of each, based upon the 

 collections of the Department, and recommend their 

 publication as Bulletin No. 7 of this Division. These 

 illustrations were primarily designed to illustrate a Hand- 

 book of North American Grasses, in which all the North 

 American species are to be figured, but as it will be 

 some time before the remaining figures can be engraved, 

 it has been suggested that three hundred of those now 

 completed be published, in order to render them imme- 

 diately useful and available to others. If the present 

 form of publication had been orginally contemplated, 

 a different selection of figures would doubtless have 

 been made. This is of small importance, however, as 

 it is hoped to publish illustrations of all the species in 

 the near future, and it is for this reason that references 

 to the detail drawings are omitted. Notes upon the 

 uses and value of the species of economic interest were 

 published in Bulletin No. 3 of this Division, "Useful 



and Ornamental Grasses." 



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